Hempfield Area Senior High School

Having had three children graduate from Hempfield Area,and as a teacher in a neighboring district, I must say I am very impressed with the district. The education my children received was excellent. The teachers were challenging and supportive. There has been lots of criticism about the construction of the field house. I am happy that my kids had these facilities to utilize during heir time at HA. Hempfield does have the political problems and bickering that plagues most schools, but overall, the school district is great.
—Submitted by a parent

Our child currently attends Hempfield High School. She previously attended Wendover Middle School. We have been extremely pleased with both the schools and the teachers. Her teachers have motivated her and boosted her self-esteem. She is currently enrolled in several AP classes. The classes are hard, but the teachers are available for tutoring. Our daughter's out of school time is spent with the Hempfield Band. This keeps her very busy; however, the band experience has been wonderful and something she will never forget. She has met other highly motivated students, as well as caring, devoted teachers and band parents. Overall, our experience with Hempfield has been excellent.
—Submitted by a parent

Hempfield was a complete waste of my time. The district is focused on pushing funds into the sports, etc, instead of adopting new innovative curriculum. I'm currently an educator and pursuing my masters, and I can say if I visited Hempfield now and looked at the teaching methods it's almost archaic. I won't even get into the politically charged hiring methods and useless teachers unions that keep these school continuing their mediocrity. I'm glad to be in a progressive area where education is always changing and adapting to what the needs of the community are.
—Submitted by a student

I realy like it here... I get a good education and its in a nice, realtively quiet area. Too many kids that go there complain about it, but compared to other shools, the opportunities we get here are pretty good. We get a great education and there are plenty of clubs and activities to join. And with the size of the student body, you can meet a ton of people and make lots of good friends, because alot of the people here are great.
—Submitted by a student

I am completing my Bachelor's of Arts at Thiel College this semester and, honestly, Hempfield is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I felt prepared to go onto college, but I was still scared like most people are because it's a new environment with new people. I have found out that Hempfield offers many more languages than most other high schools (I go to school with people who weren't offered any foreign languages!) and I was given the opportunity to take a Psych and Sociology course there which helped me choose my majors; Crim. Justice and Sociology with a minor in Psych. Hempfield is a good school, unfortunately, no one realizes that until they leave!
—Submitted by a student

Honestly the school is way too big for me and I really dont like it their at all. The student population is too great and there are not that many teachers to fulfill all of these students needs.
—Submitted by a student

I have attended Hempfield in the past and am currently in college now. I believe that no high school truly prepares you for what to expect at the college level, but Hempfield did the best job I could have hoped for. I participated on sports teams, in band, choir, and theater. I thought the teachers were very involved with their students. I also thought that even the academic, non-honor classes were taught to the highest quality. After meeting students, and marrying one, from other schools, I was surprised, and thankful, to have such a good education. Many of my classmates have gone on to earn excellent careers already.
—Submitted by a former student

In the honors programs, the academics are great. The rest aren't so amazing; many 'academic' classes are taught laxadasically and result in no educational gain by the students. The band is also excellent. Too much money is spent on sports teams, however. As a result, there isn't enough money in the budget to buy PAPER or even REPLACEMENT BOOKS. The Guidance Dept. is terrible and completely unhelpful - just like the rest of the administration. The cafeteria produces sub-par, revolting food, is poorly lit, and is somewhat unsanitary. If the school were simply better run at the administrative level it would be a perfect fit for everyone. As it is now, it's just mediocre.
—Submitted by a student

This is coming from a student who involves himself in the AP courses and many activities at Hempfield. Academically, I can promise you that there is no school in the region that is better than Hempfield in advanced courses. All of my teachers are excellent and manage to get much accomplished in and outside of class. I go on trips and compete in interscholastic competitions, and in meeting students from other districts I find my classes to be on par with and, in many cases, far beyond other classes from different districts. I recently have taken 7 ap tests for college credit and my scores were all high enough to earn me college credit. Parents get involved (sometimes too much in sports cases) and our marching band is renowned. Every form of extracurricular activity is available, or if it isn't, staff will work with students to make it available.
—Submitted by David Park, a student

Great academic program, great sports programs along with band and other activities available. Parents can be involved as much as they want with lots of areas were parent volunteers are need to help out. Overall good school but very large.
—Submitted by a parent